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This recording documents a one-off Fugazi gig or singular regional date at the onset of 1995. A benefit for WMBC, the college run radio station of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the first out of an incredible 123 live performances that year, making it the third longest annual touring schedule in Fugazi history (versus 129 gigs in 1990 an 134 shows in 1993).

Included are a total of 19 live tracks, with Red Medicine on heavy rotation (10 tracks), followed by In On The Kill Taker (4), Repeater (2), Steady Diet of Nothing(1), Margin Walker EP (1) and the debut 7 Songs EP (1).

From this point of view, I can well imagine that this concert proved to be quite a challenge for the participants not yet familiar with the Red Medicine album, recorded just a bit over a month before (January 1995) at Inner Ear Studios, and set for official release in June that year.

Appropriately, Guy points out, “last year we barely played at all, and then we just recently just have played a couple of… probably five months ago, four, three, two months ago, something like that, so we’re a little rusty, we’re not like a relentless machine, but, you know sometimes you want the relentless machine, and sometimes you don’t want the relentless machine, tonight you do yourselves a favour by not wanting the relentless machine.”

Nevertheless, with the exception of some minor slip-ups or missed beats, the performance is quite tight and convincing overall. The Red Medicine tracks are pretty much definite versions in the wake of the recording process (do note that Fell, Destroyed is introduced as a “song that almost ended up in the graveyard” and is dubbed Tonight, Blue Green Water, seemingly referring to part of its lyrics “Green in laying water blue”).

Particularly noteworthy is the Red Medicine rarity Combination Lock, which appears to have been played live just once in 1994 and merely 20 times in 1995 before being put on the shelf indefinitely (including 6 times on US soil, and 14 times in Europe and I was fortunate enough to catch it at the Lido, Leuven, Belgium).

In what might be considered an attempt to return the favour for bearing with the experimental set, the band generously does oblige someone asking to “play something from Kill Taker” and throws in at least a couple of well-honed bangers from their earlier work as well (cf. Promises, Repeater, Glueman) to get people off their asses.

The audio quality of the first couple of songs is subpar, sounding crumpled for lack of a better word. Fortunately, things pick up right after Downed City, and from here on out the sound quality is really good and essentially captures the layering and intricate subtleties of the instrumentation and vocals, safe for occasional slight traces of distortion, Joe’s first couple of lines getting buried on By You and Ian’s vocals sounding withdrawn on Blueprint (which might have been intended) and Long Distance Runner (definitely not intended).

Remarkable is that a number of songs feature some sort of sound bite, involving a segment of dialogue, i.e. Latest Disgrace, Bed For The Scraping (“a hard motherfucker to sing”) and Combination Lock. At this point I am not sure if the band purposely made use of this feature, or if it is the result of some unfortunate interference.

In-between song banter is easygoing and relates to a number of topics, addressing a person named Darth (“the prick”) who relentlessly puts in Minor Threat requests (all in good humour), an eloquent plea by Guy to use “the personal space around you to make some kind of communication with the sound that you’re hearing”, Operations Desert Storm, Just Cause and Yellow Jacket, and the “long, affectionate history between Washington and Baltimore that goes way back, way way back.”

Please Note:
Available recordings have been mastered to correct for volume shifts, drop outs, etc. but some sonic anomalies will still exist, especially early in the set when the mix is being settled. The band has rated each show for sound quality and set the general price of a download at $5 per show. If you have a different price in mind feel free to utilize the alternative pricing option.